In 2025, fire departments serving Wilkins responded to 22 fire and hazmat incidents . Here's the full picture.
Electrical wiring/equipment problem, other lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 64% of all calls.
May peaks. Apr dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
87 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 7 | — | |
| 2022* | 6 | — | |
| 2023* | 3 | — | |
| 2024 | 49 | — | |
| 2025 | 22 | -55.1% |
* Well below Wilkins's usual volume. That almost always means one or more departments didn't submit a full year to NFIRS, not that fires dropped, so no year-over-year change is shown for it.
For the 1 building fires Wilkins departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 4 building fires investigators classified across 2021–2025. The room or location where ignition occurred — kitchens, bedrooms, exterior, vehicle areas — tells you where to focus prevention.
| # | Area of origin | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 1 | 25.0% | |
| 2 | Office | 1 | 25.0% | |
| 3 | Outside area, other | 1 | 25.0% | |
| 4 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 1 | 25.0% |
NFIRS Heat Source (HEAT_SOURC) — the physical thing that started it. Spark or ember from operating equipment, an open flame, smoking materials, or hot embers from a fireplace are the leading culprits nationwide. Here's the Wilkins mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 2 | 50.0% | |
| 2 | Heat source: other | 1 | 25.0% | |
| 3 | Hot ember or ash | 1 | 25.0% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Wilkins sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 1,815 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Smoking | 394 | 48.2 mi | |
| 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | 190 | 43.4 mi | |
| 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | 173 | 30.3 mi | |
| 2003 | Equipment and vehicle use | 152 | 39.5 mi | |
| 2013 | Debris and open burning | 106 | 42.6 mi | |
| 2005 | Arson/incendiarism | 105 | 47.4 mi | |
| 2009 | Debris and open burning | 90 | 42.9 mi | |
| 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 76 | 49.2 mi | |
| 2005 | Arson/incendiarism | 60 | 33.4 mi | |
| 1992 | Arson/incendiarism | 48 | 38.1 mi | |
| 2006 | Debris and open burning | 45 | 44.6 mi | |
| 2013 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 36 | 39.3 mi |
Top 7 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six Pennsylvania cities with population within ±25% of Wilkins. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
A 30-minute weekend can cut your home's exposure substantially. These four checklists are a good starting point.
Numbers reflect incidents reported by participating fire departments to the National Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS) Public Data Release for calendar year 2025. NFIRS is voluntary — about 23,000 of roughly 30,000 US fire departments report — so totals are a strong indicator, not a complete census. Per-capita comparisons use 2023 ACS population estimates. Wildland fire data complements NFIRS with NIFC and USFS perimeters. Active-fire counts come from a dated NIFC snapshot, not a live feed.